Biography
Peter Dakin, a Quaker from Ferrisburgh, Vermont, was one of three Vermont Quakers drafted into the Union Army on July 13, 1863, who refused both to bear arms and — as a compromise of principle — to pay the $300 commutation fee. Sent to the Army of the Potomac in Virginia, the men were pressured, threatened, and abused; at Culpeper on October 3, 1863, they were staked spread-eagle to the ground for hours. When Secretary of War Edwin Stanton learned of it he had "the three incorrigibles" brought to Washington, and on November 7, 1863 they were released at the personal wish of President Lincoln.
